


Where the Seed Falls

by kuduslut (hawkeward)



Category: Guild Wars 2
Genre: Asura: We Do What We Must Because We Can, Gen, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-31
Updated: 2014-03-31
Packaged: 2018-01-17 17:07:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1395757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawkeward/pseuds/kuduslut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sylvari appear on Tyria, and Kudu’s path diverges from his master’s.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the Seed Falls

When the plant-men began appearing on the fringes of Maguuma, the Arcane Council advised caution and observation. It was not the asura's concern, they said. Wait and watch, see if the creatures continued into asura territory or turned north toward Kryta. They looked like humans, let them be the humans' problem. 

Kudu thought they were fools, the lot of them.

"And what if they're a new kind of dragon minion?" he demanded of Snaff. "Humans, corrupted from another dragon's rising? We need to  _know_ , before it's too late!"

"Kudu, enough," Snaff said warningly, not looking up from his golem designs. "We would have detected the energy signature of a new dragon."

"You can't be sure of that," Kudu argued back. "We barely placed any of the energy gatherers in that area, and we haven't maintained them. You wouldn't let me boost the--"

"You know as well as I do that area has no history of draconic influence, and we didn't maintain the gatherers because  _there was no activity_." Snaff ran a hand through his hair irritably. "We'll find out soon enough what these new creatures are."

"But--"

"Kudu, I don't want to hear about this again until the Council revises its position." Snaff turned back to his work.

Kudu glowered at his master's back, then turned on his heel and stalked furiously out of the lab.

\--

Making contact with the Inquest was easier than he would have thought. He knew people, and they knew people, and soon enough he found himself in a shadowy corner, speaking with a small group of red-and-black-clad asura.

These more intrepid of them were facing the same problem that he was--the Inquest's leaders, seeking to establish their credibility in Rata Sum politics, were reluctant to go against the Council. Their interest in the newcomers was less than noble, however, rooted in the chance for personal glory as the first to discover the secrets of a never-before-seen creature. 

Different ends, but the means were the same. And what did their ends matter, so long as his were achieved?

"You provide the lab space," he told them, "Make sure it's somewhere outside Rata Sum--we don't want to be interrupted. I'll furnish my own equipment. We'll acquire a specimen together."

Their leader, a biologist with a bald head and mottled greenish skin, nodded to him. "Acceptable. We take right of first examination, however. You assist us with our experiments, then we aid you in yours."

Kudu frowned at that. "I'll need it alive."

"If the first does not survive, we will acquire another." The leader shrugged amiably. "We're in this together, after all."

They were. The agreement was reached, and Kudu left the meeting with a favorable impression of the Inquest--efficient, prepared to compromise, and unwilling to let politics stand in their way. Something to think about.

\--

When news finally came of one of the creatures ranging nearly into Metrica Province, they knew it was time. 

The ambush was almost too easy--it moved through the jungle without purpose, wandering aimlessly like a progeny without its parent. Kudu's nets held it, the Inquest sedatives worked as intended. A golem carried it, limp, back to the lab. 

The examination began before it awoke. Externally it was like a human in nearly every way, crown to toes, save for the leaves it sprouted instead of hair and the wooden texture of its flesh. They took scrapings of its smooth bark-skin, drew vials of the sap that served it for blood, plucked leaves from the twisting branches that grew from its scalp. Inquest members of their group were hard at work analyzing these specimens almost as soon as they were collected.

When its eyes fluttered open, the real investigation began.

That it spoke was no surprise--even Skritt spoke--but the coherency of its words was unusual. It named itself--Malomedies--and its kind--Sylvari. It babbled of a great mother tree from which it had sprung, of the secret grove where more of its kind dwelt, of stars and dreams and centaur teachings and countless things in which Kudu had no interest. When the Inquest biologist finally cut into it, it begged.

Throughout all of that, it said nothing of dragons.

But it showed fear, cringing against its restraints at the approach of scalpels and saws. It screamed in pain, cried great sniveling tears of clear sap, called for its mother. If it was truly of draconic origin, the dragons had learned much of mortal behavior--even the most evolved dragon minions, for all their cunning, had never been observed to show such emotion.

It was...  _possible_  that this was an ordinary creature, after all--or as ordinary as an ambulatory, talking, thinking plant could be. But  _possibilities_  didn't matter--he had to be sure.

\--

They ran experiments on the creature night and day for three cycles, working with the Inquest efficiency that Kudu so appreciated. When they finished, it was still alive. Barely.

It no longer spoke, simply watching Kudu with deadened eyes as he closed the containment unit around it. Its leaves hung loosely where they had not been cut off; its flesh was brittle, its skin dulled.

He tuned the dragon energy collectors to begin siphoning. It had been a simple matter to retrieve them from Snaff's lab. The master was preoccupied with golems now, his study of the Elder Dragons set aside for the moment. But Kudu knew them inside and out--their use and repair, collection and release. He and Snaff had been seen using the equipment often enough that no one questioned him when he left Rata Sum with a cartful. 

He spent nearly a full day trying to draw dragon energy from the creature, siphoning at more and more intense levels. It found its voice again, to scream as the collector tore at its essence. Kudu watched the collection readouts carefully, making notes--they remained steady. The creature couldn't be draconic in origin... unless a new dragon carried an energy signature the old collectors couldn't detect. Impossible to determine--but there was another way to approach the problem. 

When he reversed the energy flow, the creature arched painfully, howling and twitching as the current arced through it. Energy collected from Risen, enough to begin corruption, blanketed it as it convulsed. 

It remained unchanged. Fascinated, he laid a hand on the flow increase valve.

\--

He was still absorbed in half-finished experiments when he thought he heard a quiet voice say his name. He paused.

"Kudu," it repeated.

When he turned, he found that Snaff stood there, flanked by Peacemakers. Others were already taking the Inquest members into custody, one by one.

"What are you doing, Kudu? Did you really think I wouldn't notice the loss of my equipment? Did you think I had no safeguards built into my containers of dragon energy?" Disappointment was etched into every line of Snaff's face. "Their locators led me here. I had hoped to find you anywhere else."

"Master, if you'll just look at what I--" Kudu began.

"You are no longer my apprentice, Kudu." Snaff's voice was almost gentle.

"But... don't you want to know what I found?" Kudu couldn't keep the note of pleading from his words.

A Peacemaker stepped forward. "You are under arrest pending investigation into the matter of illicit experimentation on a sentient citizen of Tyria," he said as he and another took Kudu by the arms.

"Snaff?" his voice cracked.

Snaff said nothing. His back was turned as he helped the sylvari out of the containment unit and to his feet, supporting him as a healer rushed forward.

Then the Peacemakers led Kudu away.


End file.
